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Saturday, January 11, 2014

Let's sing the 2013 off!

Oh well, not every year may be the fountain of new music springing from the depths of the world (and internets). 2013 was not that year.

World went crazy for Miley Tongus' racy video which for me was just a plain attempt coming from an attentionwh*re, thankfully Gangnam Style stopped being played in every damn radio station all over the globe, million new bands debuted and EXO had their ball-of-fur comeback.

As I said, nothing major happened. Vivaldi is still dead.

However it would be good to go through the 2013 and see. OK, I admit, this "seeing" will be through my glasses, because I have no idea what a certain person in Sydney suburbs listened in June. But I have nice, stylish glases. Deal with that. There will be some Western music and some Asian music.
First thing first, I need to get it off my chest. Neither Lorde nor CHVRCHES didn't make me fall on my knees and write in an ecstasy over the novelty and freshness and new perspective. No, Lorde, that is Ella Yelich-O’Connor is a 17-years-old girl who knows her popculture visuals, but has no idea about the meaning behind all that. And of course this one-dimensional view on artifacts of culture surrounding her caused various reactions to "Royals". She was even called rascist. No, she's not, she's just shallow and as everyone in her generation, too lazy to even read an article on wikipedia. Hence the misunderstanding.

So, first, lets start with Western music (here, accuse me of rascism as well).Robbie Williams released new album "Swing Both Ways", and when I saw it had Rufus Wainwright featured, I knew it wasn't that great idea. No, I used to listen to Wainwright years ago, for around a month or two, but hell, he sang all songs in exactly the same way: as if a sheep impersonated cat in March. Surprisingly, the title song is better sung by him than Williams. Robbie had one good album - "Escapology" and that's it. Some people are born to sing the swing (George Michael FTW!), some are not (casus: Williams and Rod Stewart).

Vampire Weekend ended up being the TOP 1 artist with their album "Modern Vampires Of The City". The critics dissected this album and "Ya Hey' better than me and although I do find this album very nice, I'm not going to play it every day. Maybe this song only, from time to time.

Imagine Dragons - their album is much better than the one of Vampires, but I wouldn't call it "indie". OK, fine, I have an allergy to "indie" and I firmly believe that if an artist ends up on a Billboard records list, one ceases to be "indie". Same for Arcade Fire, gods know I hate the buzz around them. yes, I listened to them when I lived through my indie phase in life, but when another album after another sounded exactly the same with exactly self-admiring and pretentious lyrics - I stopped. I can listen to maybe "Rebellion (Lies)" or "No Cars Go", but that's the limit. That's why "Fallen" is my least liked song on Imagine Dragons' album, the percussion sounds Arcadish and I can't stand it.
"Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons opens the album and what an opening this is.

Have no idea what to do with OneRepublic, however their smashing, dynamic yet somehow unhinged "Counting Stars" is a haunting song. Pop? Of course, but with good lyrics and this unsettling nerve through the whole song. And I hated "Stop and Stare". Hated it!
BTW, sis, the MV has your favorite deep South animal, you know^^

Morcheeba returned!! With Skye! I don't ask for more.

Lastly, BrunuhVille came with new album, superior to anything before. "Aura" is coolly awesome as if the album knew it's great and remained unmoved by its quality. To fully appreciate it, listen to the whole album, because it makes sense as the whole.

Few soundtracks from 2013 made me elated, very few. Hans Zimmer redeemed himself with "Man of Steel", Daniel Pemberton came with "The Counselor" and Henry Jackman with "Captain Phillips".

Asian part.

OK, I admitted this once and I'm confirming. I still like SISTAR19 song. I listen to it. It's probably the drum rhythm that keeps my ears glued to it (wut??) but I like it. I have to admit, I also like the choreo.

SISTAR19 - Gone Not Around Any Longer:

SHINee came back (back, back, back), sadly without Jonghyeon. Then he came back as well. And the world started to make sense again. "Why So Serious", vocally, is a really great album. If I had to point my favorite songs, those would be "Orgel", "Nightmare" (it is still my ringtone) and "Evil" with the latter constructed in a peculiar way of interwoven different tempo songs (I count 5 of them).

Confession: I love Taemin's voice.

Jonghyeon penned quite a few songs in 2013 that were made public, the above mentioned "Orgel" with his recurring motif of destructive, dark obssessions and possessiveness. "Selene 6.23" and "Symptoms" being for SHINee and "Gloomy Clock" written and arranged for IU (let me spazz for a moment because of this beautiful chorus). Not counting wholly self-composed "Too Late" that he sang during a solo at the concert. Fans still pray for a studio version of it. Also, 2013 saw his OST song "1 Out of 100" for "King's Dream".
This is titled: "More than you ever wanted to know about Jjong in 2013".

"Ten Years After : Pastel Music 10th Anniversary" was released, that is 10CD set commemorating Pastel Music and its artists.

Manggakhwa is not the new band, but highly, obscenely underrated.

망각화 - 잊는다 At C클라우드 110320

"Monstar" OST was mentioned, same for Yiruma's "Blind Film".

JAURIM is back!! The whole album "Goodbye, grief" is great.

And also "Icarus":

JiaJia (music composed by Mayday's very own Monster^^), another Taiwan voice I came to like.

Few other artists and albums I probably forgot to mention, but I hope this is more than enough. ACH mentioned new song/album, but since I've been hearing this since 2010, I don't believe anymore. Unless I touch the... erhm, CD. Yes.